


Whose Lullaby...?

by sbuggbot



Category: SteamWorld Dig (Video Games), SteamWorld Heist (Video Game)
Genre: Dig 2 Spoilers, Fluff and Angst, Gen, Memory Loss, Mosly Angst Though, Some hurt/comfort
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-11-27
Updated: 2020-11-27
Packaged: 2021-03-09 19:28:04
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 684
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/27731536
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/sbuggbot/pseuds/sbuggbot
Summary: They like humming a little tune to themselves. They don't remember where they learned it, but something about it is comforting...
Comments: 6
Kudos: 6





	Whose Lullaby...?

**Author's Note:**

> When I wrote [McCrank's Lullaby](https://archiveofourown.org/works/19144687) about a year and a half ago (good lord, has it really been that long?) there was an additional branch to it I thought of but ultimately ended up cutting because it didn't fit with the flow and focus of the story. I got reminded of this and decided to write it down finally, with an expanded bit or two. :) 
> 
> I may have made my place writing Quest fic, but don't get me wrong I love the Dig/Heist story as well and I owe my life to Image and Form.

Piper thought she could hear something as she stepped into the old and abandoned trash container, something other than the sound of groaning metal she’d learn to ignore while aboard Scrapper ships. It was some sort of humming, making a tune, but there was a buzzing sound to it as well? She was pretty sure she hadn’t heard any sort of natural creature make that noise before…

Holding her gun up so she was ready to fire it at a moment’s notice, she crept further inside. She figured out the source as she got closer to the ladder: a half-broken robot sitting amongst the junk piles as though they too had been thrown out. Aside from the parts obviously made of scrap metal, Piper had never seen any sort of bot like it before. 

“Hey!” she barked, stopping.

The humming stopped, while the mysterious robot lifted their head, two bright blue eyes showing up on the screen they had for a face. What came out of them first was a burst of static, but then the bot said, “Dot..? No, not Dot… I seem to be confused…” Their speaking voice had a similar sort of staticky buzzing as their humming.

* * *

Fen sat on the floor in the ship, next to the big furnace. Something about the warmth and nearby chugging sounds from the engine felt familiar to them. And safe. They liked the ship a lot more than the trash container, or… whatever was before then. That part was blurry.

They began humming that same little tune to themself. It also felt safe and familiar to them, like sitting in the ship’s engine room did. Both things together gave them a faint, fuzzy feeling of familiarity they couldn’t place.

Piper climbed down the ladder as she did her rounds about the ship, seeing what her crew was up to and if they had anything they needed (or just wanted) to tell her. 

“You seem to like that tune, I’ve heard you hum it a lot,” Piper said. “Where’d you learn it, Fen?”

“I...I don’t remember where I learned it...” Fen said as they reached for their hood to fidget with the fabric. “It’s something I feel like I’ve always known, like my name… it’s comforting for me. If it’s annoying, I can stop--”

“It isn’t annoying at all! If it makes you happy, then go ahead.” She shifted her weight from one foot to the other. “It’s good you have something to hold onto from the past that you like.”

Fixing their hood again, Fen went back to humming and listening to the sounds of the ship while Piper went to talk to Valentine.

* * *

“Why’re you making that sound?” A very small Fen asked as they made one of their uncommon appearances from within Dorothy’s furnace. The two of them had stopped for a little while so Dorothy could rest. 

“I’m...I’m humming?” Dorothy replied, mentally bracing herself for Fen to call it stupid or something. “It’s an old song from when I was little, it makes me feel better.”

Surprisingly, Fen didn’t have a sarcastic comment to make about it. Or if they  _ did _ have one, they didn’t voice it--which would have been even more surprising, actually. “Huh.”

“It reminds me of times I wasn’t as sad; when I wasn’t missing people I loved.” She hugged her knees to her chest and rested her head down on her arms. “Not just Rusty, but several people back home.”

Fen settled down on top of her head, flattening a bit. It was their idea of an affectionate gesture.

Once they noticed the pattern, Fen realized Dorothy hummed to herself a lot, usually that particular tune. It was easy to hear from inside her middle; it kinda overpowered anything going on outside, actually. During little lulls in her mining while she rested, while tinkering with her tools or fixing herself, and notably right after she had escaped Vectron in one piece. Fen was almost tempted to join in that time. Almost. 

Fen hummed the song as the earth broke and collapsed around the teleporter.


End file.
